Additive Layer Manufacturing (ALM), also commonly referred to as 3D printing, is a process of making three-dimensional objects from a digital file. Currently, additive manufacturing is mostly used for rapid prototyping by large in-house corporate design departments to manufacture 3D prototypes of new designs, during the early stages of a product development cycle.
Due to the relatively high operating costs and the expertise required to operate 3D printers, 3D printing has not yet become accessible to the consumer user market. Currently 3D design files are created using Computer Assisted Design (CAD) software, such as SolidWorks™, to generate a digital representation of a 3D object. The STL (Standard Tessellation Language) file format is a commonly used format for storing such CAD files. This CAD file, in other words the digital representation of the 3D object, is subsequently converted into a series of contiguous 2D cross sections, representing sequential cross-sectional slices of the 3D object. These 2D cross sections are commonly referred to as 2D contour data. The 2D contour data can be directly input into a 3D printer in order for the printer to print the 3D object. Conversion of a 3D design file into 2D cross-sectional data is often carried out by dedicated software.
Laser sintering is a commonly used additive manufacturing technique for the manufacture of high quality parts. During the printing process, a laser is used to fuse particles of material together. Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) is an example of a type of laser sintering. Before a printing cycle is executed, the laser parameters must be appropriately configured on the basis of the object being printed. For example, different materials will require different laser parameter settings in order to achieve the required solidity/rigidity. Such parameter settings may include, but are not restricted to, one or more of the following: laser power; laser speed; laser focal spot size; laser offsetting; layer thickness; contouring strategies; and section filling strategies. Similarly, different parameter settings may also be associated with different build algorithms used to print features such as hatching and/or to print specific geometric structures such as meshes. The expertise of a skilled 3D printer machine operator familiar with the performance and capabilities of the printer, is required to correctly configure the 3D printer with the most appropriate parameter settings, to ensure that printed objects satisfy the required specifications. This required level of expertise in order to correctly configure a 3D printer is a reason why 3D printers are inaccessible to the lay consumer user.
A significant amount of time and effort has been invested in this field of technology to make 3D printing accessible to the consumer user market, with little success to date. Nonetheless, 3D printing technology has been earmarked as a potential means for manufacturing user generated designs, wherein commercial products are manufactured in accordance with user generated designs. Currently, a trade off is made between quality of printing and price in commercially available 3D printers, for private home use. In order to keep the printers affordable for the home user, print quality is sacrificed. As a result, most currently available consumer 3D printers are unable to provide high quality prints, required for the printing of functional products. On the basis of these observations and the expertise required to configure and operate 3D printers, it becomes clear that alternative logistical solutions are required to extent the benefits and advantages of 3D printing to the private user.
One possible logistical solution is use of distributed computer network systems. In such systems, the printing of 3D objects in accordance with user generated designs is outsourced to dedicated 3D printing farms, also commonly referred to as print bureaus.
In such distributed computer network systems, product design and product manufacture are distinct, separate events, which occur remotely to each other, and are carried out by different entities. For example, whilst the private user may be responsible for designing the 3D object, manufacturing the object is outsourced to a 3D print farm. There are several problems with such a system, which must be addressed in order for it to provide a commercially viable alternative to existing manufacturing solutions. For example, such a system is prone to piracy. Specifically, there is no mechanism to prevent the unauthorised use of copyright works and/or the unauthorised use of proprietary design works, once these have been provided to the manufacturer. In other words, there is no mechanism for designers to control how their designs are used, once the manufacture of an object has been commissioned, and the manufacturer provided with the proprietary designs. For example, this problem is currently widely present in, but not limited to, the fashion industry, where the manufacturing of high-end couture is outsourced to third party manufacturers. For example, a designer may commission a fixed number of clothing articles to be manufactured to a proprietary design. However, ultimately, the designer has no control over the total number of articles actually manufactured by the manufacturer. Often, the manufacturer may manufacture a greater number of articles than were commissioned. The commissioned articles are delivered to the designer, whilst the additionally manufactured non-commissioned articles are distributed on the grey market. The designer and rights holder obtains no compensation from the sale of the non-commissioned articles. This problem is present in every system where manufacture and design are carried out by different autonomous entities.
It is an object of the present invention to solve at least some of the above identified shortcomings currently present in 3D printing distributed networks, in order to provide a commercially viable system that is accessible to the layman user, for the manufacturing of products in accordance with user generated designs.